"But he may have already alarmed the household. Hark!" There was the noise of a struggle outside the door, and then the voice of Captain Carroll, calm and collected, rose clearly for an instant. "You are quite safe, Miss Saltonstall. I think I have him secure, but perhaps you had better not open the door until assistance comes." They gazed at each other, without a word. A grim challenge played on Guest's lips. Maruja lifted her little hands deliberately, and clasped them round his defiant neck. "Listen, darling," she said, softly and quietly, as if only the security of silence and darkness encompassed them. "You asked me just now if I would fly with you--if I would marry you, without the consent of my family--against the protest of my friends--and at once! I hesitated, Harry, for I was frightened and foolish. But I say to you now that I will marry you when and where you like--for I love you, Harry, and you alone." "Then let us go at once," he said, passionately seizing her; "we can reach the road by the canada before assistance comes--before we are discovered. Come!" "And you will remember in the years to come, Harry," she said, still composedly, and with her arms still around his neck, "that I never loved any but you--that I never knew what love was before, and that since I have loved you--I have never thought of any other. Will you not?" "I will--and now--" "And now," she said, with a superb gesture towards the barrier which separated them from Carroll, "OPEN THE DOOR!" CHAPTER XIII With a swift glance of admiration at Maruja, Guest flung open the door. The hastily-summoned servants were already bearing away the madman, exhausted by his efforts. Captain Carroll alone remained there, erect and motionless, before the threshold. At a sign from Maruja, he entered the room. In the flash of light made by the opening door, he had been perfectly conscious of her companion, but not a motion of his eye or the movement of a muscle of his face betrayed it. The trained discipline of his youth stood him in good service, and for the moment left him master of the situation. "I think no apology is needed for this intrusion," he said, with cool composure. "Pereo seemed intent on murdering somebody or something, and I followed him here. I suppose I might have got him away more quietly, but I was afraid you might have thoughtlessly opened the door." He stopped, and added, "I see now how unfounded was the supposition." It was a fatal addition. In the next instant, the Maruja who had been standing beside Guest, conscious-stricken and remorseful in the presence of the man she had deceived, and calmly awaiting her punishment, changed at this luckless exhibition of her own peculiar womanly weapons. The old Maruja, supreme, ready, undaunted, and passionless, returned to the fray.